The present invention relates to an interface device that is used as an interface or interconnection between a patient and a transducer mechanism in order to hold the transducer mechanism securely against the skin surface of the patient at a fixed location.
When detecting and listening to various patient body sounds such as cardiac, pulmonary and Korotkoff sounds, a doctor, nurse, or technician oftentimes uses a transducer mechanism such as a stethoscope having a stethoscope head. The stethoscope head is normally placed against the skin surface of the patient in order to detect the body sounds. The stethoscope, however, in addition to detecting the body sounds may also detect undesirable airborne noise and surface motion noise. The airborne noise includes surrounding ambient noise that may be transmitted through the stethoscope head and detected by the listener. The surface motion noise can occur when the stethoscope head moves over or along the skin surface of the patient. Even a slight motion of the stethoscope head over the skin surface can cause unwanted noise. Such undesirable airborne and surface motion noise can interfere with the user's ability to properly discern and hear the body sounds. An object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide an interface device that can provide a passive noise barrier against airborne noise and that can minimize the potential for relative motion between the patient and the transducer mechanism and, therefore, minimize the amount of surface motion noise that may generated.
Sometimes it is desirable to either continually or periodically monitor a patient's body sounds at a specific location on the patient's body. Continual holding of the stethoscope head at the specific location can be burdensome for a doctor, nurse, or technician to do. Returning to the exact location at periodic intervals may also be difficult. A further object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide an interface device that can be used to establish a good reference point for continual or periodic body signal monitoring.